Visual Demands, Websites Learn to Use Space

With the invention of widescreens, better video card technology, and generally cheaper computer equipment, I can see a major problem occuring.

First off. Screens are getting wider, not longer. This is great for movies and tv. We're used to a wider screen because of how the movie theatres do things. It also makes sense visually. Unfortunately, we read mostly from top to bottom. Most books you read are longer than they are wide. Newspapers, magazines and even flyers, they're all long. So are webpages.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that vertical monitors need to be invented. That's ridiculous. Plus, most wide screen monitors can be flipped vertical, and if you have a somewhat decent video card (or good drivers), you can manually flip your screens vertical.

My issue isn't that though. My issue is web site publishers that are still making websites for 800x600 resolution. I've always pushed websites to be only 800 pixels wide for the sake of those people with old technology. But really, it depends on your audience.

If you have a healthcare site, I would submit that you should keep your to be 800 pixels wide, and probably no more text on the page to have a user scroll too much. Your target audience is probably not that proficient with the web, and having a website not fit their ancient technology would sway them from perusing your site.

If your website is about cutting edge technology though, you might want to reconsider your 800 pixel width stance.

So how to get around it? Well, first off, you could say "screw them" and design your site for 1024x786 or go all out and target people with 1280x1024. Just think about it, what are the chances that your target audience is comfortably using those screen sizes? Imagine how much space you'd have to work with.

Next, consider that in the future, sites will be made specifically for wide screens. There can be flash applications that will purposefully use the wide screen format in order to give a more movie-like presentation to their site. There will be sites that have a wider width format, perhaps allowing for more ad space on the right side, so that if users aren't using the proper screen size, they will get a horizontal scroll bar that does nothing more than hide the ads. Or perhaps hide more general information like top hits, most comments, or even user polls. All supplimental things that their frequent users will use, but the casual visiter who doesn't care, doesn't need to see it.

Thirdly, consider being more dynamic. Though my site isn't the perfect example of visual design, it does dynamically resize to fit any screen resolution. It even looks decent on wide screen. There will also be dynamic flash apps that can resize automatically, but everything from css to just properly nested tables can create a stretchable layout that everyone can enjoy.

Lastly, if you're too scared to move away from 800x600, at the very least, CENTER your website. There's nothing worse than full screening a website, only to find it left aligned and hugging the left side of my monitor. The website takes up a third of my screen, and the middle and rightside of my monitor is just filled with white space.

So stop thinking in 800x600. Step it up. Let me enjoy my widescreen monitor. Take advantage of the fact that people have more space. Live it up. Take a risk. Set the new standard.

And screw people who are using 800x600. They don't deserve to be on the internet.